The number of economically advanced, peaceful, democratic Islamic countries whose wealth was not created by natural resources or its non-Muslim minorities.... ZERO
(Not even ONE country on this planet)
:
:
The number of backward, violent, dictatorial Islamic countries... EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM

The Islamic world needs fewer fat, selfish, arrogant, idiotic petty tyrants like Morsi. And more independent, intelligent women like this brave lady. Being critical of Islam is very different from "hating Muslims." Muslims are the first victims of Islam. We in the West need to find partners like this lady whom we can actually work rationally with.

all zioniist and anti islam west are propagating mischiefs. the economist is started to be one of the hardliner zionist media. may Allah collapse you all. Egypt...........farward with the right steps. only the enemies of islam are against this history.

Go begging to your 'backers' … Saudi Arabia and Qatar … maybe they'll have a TV telethon for you … but then they'll have to start one for Syria and Somalia and … but it might make for good 'reality TV' …

Ask Qatar and Saudi Arabia for a handout … be humble not your arrogant selves …

Read anything by Spengler aka David Goldman … his specialty is economic analysis … his 'take' is that Egypt is going to be a failed state … unable to pay its bills … unable to feed its people … unable to provide a viable economic livelihood to its population …

Remember:

50% of the POPULATION is under the age of 24 … w/o 21st C job skills
50% of the POPULATION is ILLITERATE
50% of the POPULATION is DISCRIMINATED AGAINST … including women and Christians

THIS IS A RECIPE FOR FAILURE … the Islamist agenda is in conflict with a 'fix' … for over a YEAR … MORSI has stalled the changes he needed to embrace in order to get the loans he needed to survive … BUT HE CANNOT IMPLEMENT THE CHANGES SINCE HE'S AFRAID OF THEIR REPERCUSSIONS … a proverbial Catch 22 …

Maybe a 'little' war with Ethiopia over water will keep the Egyptian People's attention away from the real issues facing them … in order to be 'galvanized' by an external 'threat' and perhaps the Egyptian Army can provide a 'lift'/'bounce' for Morsi … MAYBE OR maybe not … but it won't change the 'macro' picture will it? No … didn't think so …

I disagree with you as always, because I am sure that you are not writing from a neutral perspective but rather from a biased one.

But I do agree with most of the contents of the Economist Article except the part of the involvement of the Gamaa Islamiya (an Islamist group) in the massacre of Luxor which took place on 1997

of course my objection on the accusation of this group is not to defend them but just to disclose the truth.

as per my own information the Luxor's accident has been done as a punishment to Egypt at that time and it was targeting the Tourism Industry in Egypt which was flourishing at that time and which contributes substantially to Egypt's GDP

only one week before this accident, Madeline Albright the US Secretary of State then, had been reported saying at a conference on Doha (QATAR) " those who boycotted this conference are to deeply regret very soon " and she was implicitly referring to Egypt. Mubarak and his men knew that as Egypt was boycotted this conference despite the US pressure

so nearly one week after this warning the crime took place, and not only this, but also the perpetrators had been liquidated very soon after the crime before the Egyptian police capture them.

these two justifications are very known to Egypt's police and intelligence agency.

so the Luxor's crime was an intelligence operation not by the Islamist group members. but the accusation has been planned and broadcasted by the guided media and it seems that it also influenced the Economist in this regard

by the way, there are certain countries that help in creating, training and arming of groups of criminals and then help them to settle in some areas in order to use them when necessary. and those criminals could have long beards and the country which created them could use the media to give them the description of Jihadists or Islamists etc however they are not only Moslems at all but also they have no religion at all and to give example of these groups: the armed groups who are living currently in the center and in the borders area of SINAI .

You wonder why 'Conspiracy Theories' run rampant in Muslim countries … how about 9/11? Was that done by Muslims? or the Mossad? What about the Jews who didn't report for work? What about … … ?

These are the thoughts of Egyptian Muslims … ignorant … self-satisfied … and about to become a basket case! Perhaps we should let Allah sort out Egypt! Why bother aiding those that BLAME THE WEST FOR THEIR MISERY! Fuhgetaboutit! Don't pick up the phone and dial … don't look at the TV screen … when they come begging … they would blame THE WEST/ZIONISTS for their plight no matter what …

I'm just curious, who do you believe planned and executed the Luxor attack? What was their motivation? And do you have any evidence to support the idea that Gamaa Islamiya was not involved, other than the immediate killing of the perpetrators? I thought that the leaders of Gamaa Islamiya admitted to it, though they said that they had not intended to kill the hostages.

I ask in good faith; I know little about the incident and would be glad to know more.

The problem for any party which has been the only (sort-of) permitted opposition for long years is this. They acquire a great reputation for opposing oppression, but no experience in actually getting anything done. And when they do finally attain power, they end up flailing around and upsetting a lot of people who once admired them.
.
So it isn't particularly suprising that Mr Morsi and the Bortherhood are having that problem. The real test for them will be whether they allow themselves to lose office (in the expectation of eventually getting it back). Or if (like Mr Mugabe, for example) they cling to power until their people are willing to kill them to get rid of them.

When this fumbling happens, the solution is to lay out guiding principles which are fair to all (i.e. a constitution); appoint a truly independent judiciary to uphold it; and deregulate as if one's life depended on it in order to create jobs.

Although I can kind of see where they might be coming form. Since the Bortherhood is seen as an Islamist party, if they mess up big time, that can give Islamism a bad name. Which could also reflect badly on them. If the Brotherhood leaves Egyptians equating Islamism with incompetence, that makes it that much harder for any other group of Islamists to get into power in the future.

The one thing that could help Egypt is of course the opposite of what the Brotherhood and their even more religious allies can do. Perhaps if the Brotherhood ruled without Salafists, they might be able to move toward the kind of authoritarian economic freedom one sees in a Muslim nation like Malaysia. Remember, the areas outside Luxor voted for the Salafists. This wasn't an imposition of an alien way of thinking but rather reflected Salafist strength.

I don't think Egypt's problems are solvable. Egypt has too many people and for too many years has existed as a largely make-work economy in which the highest ambition was often to get a bureaucratic position where not doing paperwork would mark the years of your life. They don't have any near role models, since they can't emulate Israel - heck, they often can't even say the name.

That said, Morsi seems to lack the skills of governing. This is often true: the leader who gets you there is the worst person to run the show. The Brotherhood seems unequipped to deal with this and the alternatives seems worse than Morsi. If his main skill turns out to be getting and holding on to power, Egypt will not have an enjoyable future. And if I were a Copt, I'd be looking into moving out.

though connect the dots seems to like to say silly things, the point is actually quite relevant. overreliance on often discriminatory bigoted and arbitrary religious dogma has done massive harm to the islamic world in terms of development, equality, liberty, fairness and progress.

There is partial truth in what you say, insofar as some schools of thought within Islam refuse to tolerate diversity of opinions or modify man-made laws enacted by medieval jurists, though this is contrary to the diverse historic tradition of the faith. Secularists tend to view religion in a very simplistic one-dimensional manner.
That said, despotism and dictatorship is the main cause of problems in the Muslim world. Sometimes religious, but most often staunchly secular foreign (mainly Western) supported regimes stifled the people's natural growth over the last century. That is changing, and over the next few decades it will change still more. But don't expect a trajectory like that of the secular West.

I find a religious person's view of their religion vastly more simplistic than any secularist. I think by one dimensional you mean a secularist, or any outsider really, gives more weight to the aspects of another person's religion that most directly effects them or is more relevant to their own moral worldview. that is not simplistic but practical.

almost universally the most childish views of religion I've found among the believers, it's like they pop open a dictionary and find adjectives that sound nice then imagine that as an aspect of their religion.

I'm not sure if natural development is a word that has any meaning, many places suffer dictatorships including europe quite often in the last century.